


Devotion

by k_nightinggale



Category: Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: 0 out of 10 people who know me are suprised about this, Angst, Comfort, Friendship, Gen, Hurt, I have no idea what I'm doing, Injury, Jason-Centric, Self-Doubt, Team Feels, Team as Family, there weren't enought fanfics so I wrote one myself, this fic and my life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-09
Updated: 2017-04-10
Packaged: 2018-10-16 21:50:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10580178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/k_nightinggale/pseuds/k_nightinggale
Summary: Jason is trying to be a good leader, but at least in his own opinion, isn't doing a very good job.Tension is already runing high between the rangers when Rita returns with backup and a new plan for world domination. Not the best time for quarrels or discord, and they should fix it soon or else they might lose one of their own for good.He takes a look at the clock on his phone. The light of the display is blinding for a few seconds before he is able to read: 5:23 AM. Still early enough to get some sleep before Saturday detention.He thinks about dead eyes staring at him and obligations and decides to get some training in the pit instead.





	1. Nightly Check-Ups

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason can't seem to get any sleep so he checks up on his team instead. Who needs sleep anyway?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I still can't belive I'm doing this. Jet here we are so thanks for giving it a try, I suppose :))
> 
> Constructive criticisem is alwasys welcome, this is afterall my first work and I'm sure I can still improve.  
> Also, English isn't my mother tounge and I'm a lot better at reading than writing so please tell me if I have made mistakes of any kind or even if the wording seems strange in places. I've had lots of good laughts with people because of idioms that I know from my language but that in English don't exist and therefore don't make a lick of sense.
> 
> Alllllsooooo I would recommend reading talentet Mikkals "it is the exact opposite of alone" (link:http://archiveofourown.org/works/10553190/chapters/23309524) if you like your team fics with lots of hurt!Jason.  
> She is simply the best, and the credit for keeping Jason's hurt leg/knee in the equation totaly goes to her.
> 
> sooooo anyway, enjoy.
> 
> Knightinggale

_Angel Grove is in ruins._  
_The Krispy Kreme is once again a wreck, the building little more than boulders strewn across what had once been a busy main street. The rest of the town looks similar._  
_Houses which aren’t touched by the fight are non-existent, ones still standing few and far in between._  
_He almost doesn’t dare to breathe, not because of the dust in the air which drapes itself over everything like a shroud suffocating the town, but because of the feeling of his chest being squeezed together. Choking he wanders further through the remains of his city, past destroyed cars and around an uprooted tree._  
_No one is on the streets, he is completely alone. He tastes ashes in his mouth, dry and oh so bitter on his tongue._  
_The quite is what kills him. No noises, no birds singing or leaves rustling, no live._

_There is a quiet panic inside him and it’s rising like a tidal wave. He knows, just knows he is looking for something. Needs to find it or- Or._  
_He stumbles. Falls to his knees._  
_“No.” he doesn’t know if the word really tumbles from his lips or if it stays nothing but a thought._

_In front of him, bodies are laid out on the floor. Strewn around like debris._  
_He knows most of them; Angel Grove isn’t that big after all._  
_A teacher from school, an elderly neighbour who had looked after him when he was younger, a few former team members and friends._  
_His dad. His little sister._  
  
_And the other rangers, his friends._  
_Zack. Half buried under concrete. His arm, strangely twisted, reaching out for something._  
_Kim. Lying on her side, half curled into herself in pain. A halo of blood around her head._  
_Trini. Only a few steps between her and the other female ranger, felled in her defence probably._  
_Billy. Thrown down from far above, lying in a crater. Looking like a horrible recapture of a moment not long ago._  
_Dead eyes looking at him like an accusation._  
_He doesn’t need them to tell him all of this is his fault._  
  
_‘THIS is a tragedy of your own making Jason. You are their leader, it’s your duty to keep them save. You failed them. Their blood is on your hands.‘_  
“Jason” _he knows the voice. But he also knows he shouldn’t be able to hear it because- The reason puts his heart in a vice._  
“Champ, come on wake up it’s just a bad dream.” His dad beckons softly.  
And since the warmth of a hand on his shoulder is such a welcome change from the cold of his nightmares, for once Jason does exactly as his dad asks.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

It’s actually Pearl who was the first to realise Jason is having another nightmare tonight.  
Jason knows this because his little sister is standing at the door looking scared, and concerned and just about every other emotion he doesn’t want her to feel. Which makes him feel a hundred times worse than he already did, anyway.  
‘Way to emotionally scar her even more after the whole thing with the car accident and their city being attacked by aliens. A+ for being the worst big brother to ever walk the earth.’  
  
“Champ?” Apparently his dad had been talking to him. And calling him by the old nickname, he hadn’t heard in what had to be months.  
Jason somehow manages to rip his eyes away from the small figure standing in the half-light between the darkness of his room and the floor lamp to look at him and grunt as answer.  
The warmth of his dads hand on his shoulder vanishes.  
Sitting up and re-arranging his legs to stop the burning in his knee he adds:  
“I’m fine. Sorry for waking you.”  
Jason can see his dad isn’t buying it, he probably wouldn’t buy it himself with how he is bound to look, but he doesn’t press either the way he normally does so Jason counts it as a win anyway.  
“You didn’t do it on purpose.” Then after a pause and a look to the door “I’m bringing Pearl back to bed, if you like we can talk, after.”  
Jason does not want to talk and doesn’t plan to either, yet he hums back in agreement anyway.  
They both know Jason will just act asleep.  
  
The rest of the night goes as following:  
Jason goes to give his sister a hug and a kiss to reassure her he’s ok and reassure himself she is still there and fine.  
He gives his dad a smile he hopes looks thankful while steady but has the feeling in reality just looks suspiciously pained and unsteady.  
Listening to his father and sisters muted voices through the wall he settles back into the mattress, letting them lull this still too fast heartbeat back to normal.  
Next he lies still in bed and breathes evenly until his dad comes by to check on him and then waits 10 additional painfully long minutes to be certain he left and went to bed himself.  
Only after Jason is absolutely sure he’s asleep and won’t realise his son’s absence until morning, he moves out of bed to dress quietly: A shirt under his washed out red hoodie and a soft and comfortable pair of grey sweatpants he learned to love after his car crash and the following PT.  
Since his leg and knee are for once not seriously acting up, the underlying pain easy to ignore since becoming a power ranger, he decides to leave the brace.  
So he pockets his phone and the power coin and slips out of the window into the night air for another of his check-up rounds.  
  
He tells himself he usually starts with Billy because his house is nearest, which is technically true but far from his main motive. He takes a look around the house and neighbourhood like he does at each of his friends’ homes to make sure everything is as it should be.  
Hoping the genius isn’t pulling a nightshift in his ‘laboratory’ in the basement but feeling optimistic since Jason hadn’t seen any light he jumps the garage to get a look inside Billy’s room.  
What Jason finds makes him smile.  
The dark skinned boy is for once actually asleep in his bed but there are concept drawings, machine parts and tools carefully laid out in the room in the closest way Billy will probably ever come to actual disorder. Jason takes a minute or two to just watch his chest move up and down (a sight which has become one of the most comforting he knows) and then moves on.  
  
Next on is Kim. Who would surely have his hide for pulling a Edward Cullen on all of them. ‘Cause Jason has no doubt that or something similar is what Kim would call Jason’s nightly rounds. Which is another reason he doesn’t want his team to know: To spare him the trash talking and them the worry.  
Anyway, Kim is usually the easiest to check up on as chances are high she’s in fact in bed. Which rings true in this case, too.  
Laying under a massive mountain of pink comforters and between just as pink throw-pillows, sleeping deeply and peacefully is the pink ranger.  
Jason can’t help but realize that Kim’s room is terribly pink. Looking down at himself and his red hoodie he asks himself, as he always does, if that has always been the case or if it’s a side effect of the phenomenon that has them all wearing their colours more often than not. Making a mental note to already ask Zordon about this Jason makes his way over to the second female rangers place.

Trini is, closely followed by Zack, the most likely not to find at home in the early hours of the day and the night seeing as she likes to spend them wandering the wild or doing her tai Chee near the mine. One of the first times he did his check-up routine after a nightmare and hadn’t found her save and sound at home he almost had a heart attack, pictures of Rita or some other aggressor finding her asleep and vulnerable and hurting her still flashing through his brain.  
To this day he isn’t exactly sure how he found her in the pit when she could have been anywhere. Jason only remembers panicking and thinking that he had to find her, had to make sure she was ok. The next thing he knew he was standing in the pit next to an upset Trini, just as his handy chimed.  
She had looked at him with wide eyes like she wasn’t able to figure out how he got here either, although him still dripping water made it kind of obvious which entrance he used.  
“I literally just hit send! How are you here?”  
He just shrugged and asked her fretful “Are you ok? What happened?”  
What had happened was her mother, if you could call the woman that. Jason had held Trini in his arms and shushed her gently until the others had arrived and since Trini and her witch of a mother had been their main focus that night the question as to how Jason had managed to get here so fast (faster than Trini’s message even) fell into oblivion.  
This time Trini was at home and asleep. It was a Friday night and Trini had seemingly passed out on her bed (the bed he and the rest of the team had helped her put together) an arm thrown over her brothers after what had to be a movie marathon. A halfway empty popcorn bowl has been upturned and its contents lay scattered on the floor.  
A bit calmer Jason makes towards his next and last stop.  
  
Zack and his mother live in a small condo at the edge of town. He hadn’t known how small until his first bout of anxiety had him seek out his friends’ homes more frequently. Previously he had only seen it from the outside while picking Zack up or walking home together from the ship.  
Like always Jason made sure to check up on Jacks mom first before having a look through the living room window.  
They had all been pretty clingy after the whole Rita affair but Zack had been an entirely different level. He had watched all of them like a very worried hawk after the battle, as if waiting for one of them to… Well actually Jason isn’t sure what Zack had been expecting. For one of them to drop dead? To turn his or her back on them and leave?  
There had been other instances as well.  
Billy getting the flu and Zack going into a mother hen mode ( “Zack, calm down. You’re almost worse than Red! Billy is going to be fine” “Kim is right, it’s just- Wait what’s that supposed to mean?”). Jason himself found himself at the other end of Zack’s worried kicked-puppy-look™ every time he wasn’t hiding that his leg was giving him trouble well enough.  
Moving around the house Jason finally laid eyes on the last of his friends.  
There he was. Lying stretched out on the couch and snoring quietly. His legs are to long for both the couch and blanket, making his bare feet stick out over the armrest.  
  
Snorting, Jason turns around, dragging his feet.  
He takes a look at the clock on his phone. The light of the display is blinding for a few seconds before he is able to read: 5:23 AM. Still early enough to get some sleep before Saturday detention.  
He thinks about dead eyes staring at him and obligations and decides to get some training in the pit instead.

 


	2. Saturday (detention) napping

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason shows up to Saturday detention looking dead on his feet.  
> His team takes notice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did not see this coming.  
> Thanks for reading and commenting!  
> @ [**theshipstorulethemallwrites**](http://archiveofourown.org/users/theshipstorulethemallwrites/pseuds/theshipstorulethemallwrites), [**Writemeariver,**](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Writemeariver/pseuds/Writemeariver) ****,[ ****](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Writemeariver/pseuds/Writemeariver) **[BooksAmeliaD](http://archiveofourown.org/users/BooksAmeliaD/pseuds/BooksAmeliaD)** and ****[Firefly_Aki](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Firefly_Aki/pseuds/Firefly_Aki)
> 
> ****
> 
> You guys are the reason this chapter is up today and not days from now. You are also the reason I screeched into the ears of my besties while on conference call but they are used to that.
> 
> P.s: somebody tell me what eye colour Dacre Montgomery has. In one picture they’re green-grey in the next blue-grey or blue-green. Arrgggg.  
>   
> Enjoy!

For Billy Saturday detention is something of a highlight. It’s something he´s looking forward to, nowadays at least, while most students hate it.  
He doesn’t have any problems with getting up early on the weekend, and is here by choice anyway since the lab accident which had him here the day Jason and Kimberly started detention was kind of a one-time thing.  
Billy is just here to hang out with his friends like a normal troubled teen, relishing in not having to look over his shoulder.  
Jason’s show of force a few months ago had done wonders in the bullying department and now he wasn’t only able to stand up for himself, the new clique the five of them made up seemed to have confused the school hierarchy to the point where no one knew were in the food chain they are standing anymore. Billy included.

It makes less people bother them, so he won’t complain.

Like always, Billy is one of the first to arrive. He sits down and starts unpacking his backpack, makes himself comfortable and waits for the rest of their merry band to arrive.  
Today Zack and Trini arrive next. On one hand surprising, seeing as the yellow ranger only shows up to escape her mother and occasionally her little brothers and the black ranger only started bothering to show up to detention (that he should have been attending for at least as long as Jason and Kim.) since it started “being fun”; that is ever since all of the rangers show up.  
The first time Zack swaggered into the room on a Saturday, fashionable late and with a pair of sunglasses balancing precariously on his nose, the teacher up front had gaped at him as if he was a ghost, nearly fainting.  
The poor woman didn’t know what hit her.  
Detention has never been optionally for anyone but this reaction is making it painfully clear nobody expected Zack to show up.  
On the other hand it’s less surprising that the two of them came here together. Zack doesn’t have a car and while all of them pick him up now and then Trini lives closest and thus ends up giving him a ride most of the time.

As the two come over Billy is greeted with a high five followed by a half hug from Zack and a lightning quick but warm hug from Trini.  
Zack grins at them and drags four desks over to the one Billy is sitting on, (Trini leaning onto Billy’s desk with crossed arms ‘supervising’) finishing by brandishing a chair behind the girl with flourish and gesturing for Trini to sit with a bow.  
“Voilà madam! If you would be so kind as to sit down?”  
Trini screws up her nose a bit but can’t hide her smile at his antics and does indeed sit down.  
Kim arrives shortly after, getting the same treatment and taking it with a bit more open humour then Trini and after that Billy just lets their friendly banter and the noises from the other kids around them wash over him; savouring it.  
  
For a short amount of time at least. After another ten minutes he can’t fail to notice Jason still hasn’t joined them. That’s not like him at all.  
Business as usually would be for their leader to arrive shortly after Billy or a little later on if he took a detour to give a teammate a lift.  
Billy comforts himself with the conviction that surely Jason deserves to sleep in once in a while too.

When Jason finally arrives he doesn’t look like he let himself sleep in; he doesn’t look like he slept at all. Billy isn’t the only one who notices if the looks Kim and Trini share with Zack are any indication.

Jason has a kind of disshelfed look about him: hair a mess; dark, almost purple backs under his eyes which stand in shocking contrast to too pale skin; clothes in general kind of gritty and the red hoody Billy knows for a fact is Jason’s favourite has a small but noticeable rip along the right shoulder.  
  
He manages to slip into the room with another pair of latecomers, beating the clock by seconds only and steering reliably into their direction without even having to look for them. Kind of strange, seeing as they aren`t sitting where they usually are.  
Billy is fascinated by it.

Jason seemingly has a weird awareness of were all of them are at any time. While he clearly isn’t consciously aware of it (making it even more hilarious and adorable) Trini swears that after the fight with her mother a few weeks back he arrived before he even got her message.  
Even Billy thinks that’s unlikely and they have dropped the discussion anyway for the simple reason that Jason got super twitchy the one time he overheard a part of it.

The red ranger makes his way over to them slumping down heavily on the chair reserved for him. After carefully stretching out his leg underneath the table he turns to them.  
At least it’s a real smile he gives in welcome. And boy, what a smile that is.  
Having it directed at him comes with a certain warmth; feeling like the sun just came out solely for you. Like seeing Billy and the others is the best part of Jason’s day.  
It makes it even easier to understand how the ex-star quarterback used to be so well liked.  
“Hey guys.”

A round of “Hey Jason’s” and “’ Morning’s” ring out.

“Whoooo bro, you look like you could use some shut eye. Your pretty-boy face is losing all it’s pretty, man; can’t do that to humanity,” Zack’s half serious joke gets a few chuckles and like-minded nods all around.  
  
“Are you implying I’m loosing my good looks? How dare you! What ever would I do without them?”  
Jason plays affronted, slapping a hand over his chest.  
  
As always Kimberly cuts straight through the bullshit.  
“What Zack’s implying is you could use some beauty sleep.” Crocking an eyebrow she adds,  
“And your heart is on the other side.”

“I have to agree Jason, you should know this. It’s basic anatomy.” Billy agrees

The red ranger ducks his head with a boyish smirk.  
“You got me. I pulled an all-nighter to finish a paper.”

Before someone has time to point out the improbability of his excuse a voice echoes through the room.

“Seeing as we’re _all_ here now,” Mr. Brooks hissed pointedly, giving their group the evil eye;  
“maybe we could start. You aren’t here to socialize after all.”  
Which ends their chat. Mr Brooks grudge against the quarterback is no secret. He is the football team’s assistant coach and took the lost championship personal. The lost championship everyone in Angle Grove seemingly blames Jason for.  
It’s save to say that he is trying very hard to hold Jason accountable for it.

“Of cause Sir, we’re dying to hear todays discourse.” Trini’s words are dripping sarcasm underneath a layer of fake-innocence. She isn’t even trying for subtle.  
Billy thinks it’s kind of impressive how much disdain she can put into such a short sentence.  
The only thing saving her from a harsh talking to and actual detention is _his_ inability to catch neither sarcasm nor irony  
and the assistant coach being flabbergasted at _her_ ability to speak at all.

Kim elbows Zack’s side to stop his snorting.

 

 

Jason dozes of less than 15 minutes into the lecture on proper behaviour towards respectabilities.  
Rangers surprised by this: Zero.

The inaugural speech of this Saturday’s detention is just as captivating as always. Meaning, not at all.  
Still usually Jason is normally one of the few students who at least _tries_ to actively listen. As to why is a mystery. Even Billy usually zoones out for something more productive.  
Although knowing Jason it almost certainly has something to do with leading by example or sicking it up to Mr. Brooks.  
Both are equally likely; Jason is contrary like that.

Jason had started out with his head propped up on his hand. As time went by his head sunk down slowly but surely, elbow slipping and tiltling to the side slightly. After a lot of slow blinking and two times he jerked awake, catching himself falling asleep, Jason finally ends up napping leaned against Billy’s arm, heavy head bedded on his arm.

As fun as it is to watch, it’s also worrying.  
All of them had lost sleep after their battle against Rita. Trini and Billy himself had seemingly been worst of, un-dubitably his near death (death. He had been dead. Dear god, the thought still lets hysteria bubble up in his chest) and Rita’s nightly visit to blame.  
Which doesn’t mean, the other three were not painfully familiar with nightmares and insomnia as well.  
But unlike Jason they had mostly recovered from them, while his seemed to be getting worse.  
  
Jason’s team carefully re-arranges themselves around him to ensure their leader the optimal cover from Brooks.  
They silently agree Jason could use the break and the last thing he needs is Brooks getting on his case again.

“Does anyone else think we have to do something about this?” Trini asks, after watching Jason nuzzling Billy’s arm sleepily for a while.

“Define ‘This.’ ” Zack prompts.

The black ranger gets incredulous stares. Kim pointedly looks at their sleeping leader.

“Ahhh, this “This”.”

“Come on a blind man can see there is something wrong with him. And it’s getting worse.”

Billy is fast to affirm,  
“Agreed. But what should we do? I mean the subliminal pointers we have made only made him evade the issue more”

Concerned silence.

 

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

 

Officially, detention had ended almost an hour ago however the rangers had yet to move from their places.  
By now they are the only ones left in the otherwise empty room.  
Jason is still sleeping.

Trini`s phone chimes.  
After checking the message she looks up at them, apologetically informing them:

“My dad’s here too, to pick me up.”

The four were more than willing to give him a few more minutes, their waiting parents making it regretfully impossible.  
Sure they had given Jason all the time they could, Kim moved over to wake him.

She squeezed herself between Jason and Zack and leaned over their leader.  
  
“Jason.”  Kim carefully combes the hair out of his face, affectionate look on her face.

“Jace, wake up.”

Jason somehow manages to simultaneously further snuggle up to Billy and lean into Kim’s touch, making Trini and Zack coo in unison (Zack’s voice higher and more enthusiastic than the girls).  
The sound brings Jason ultimately back into the waking-world.  
Teal eyes blink sleepy, mussed hair and sleep soft expression. Jason raises his head: he is the perfect impersonation of an overgrown puppy after a nap.

Zack coos harder. Trini hits him.

Abruptly wide awake, he scans the room; His head snapping from right to left.

“How long did I sleep?!  You could have woken me up.”

“Calm down fearless leader. We did just now, no harm done. But now get up.” Trini admonishes.

He smirks at her.

 

 

They walk down the hall, sides touching, arms slung over shoulders or elbows hooked and leave the school together.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m aware nothing happened in the last two chapters. I’m planning to redeem myself with the next one.  
> There’s gonna be coooooonflict!!! (I hope.)
> 
> Please bear with me.


End file.
